RallJeen or not to RallJeen
by Tigris-ISA
Summary: Takes place after the story of Spectrobes: Origins  Rallen and Jeena have been caught up in some sort of crash. What caused it? That's for you to decide! RallJeen optional
1. Memories

_Fire…_

_The heat was almost unbearable and made his skin feel like it was melting… the smoke smothering him to the point where he could barely breathe… the crackling of the flames was so loud it felt as though it would damage his eardrums…_

_But much louder than that were the screams coming from the burning people._

"_RALLEN!" That scream was filled with such pain that it almost made him rush blindly into the flames, had it not been for the next shout._

"_RUN! Run while you still have a chance!"_

_As much as he wanted to aid them, his instincts would not allow him to as he ran toward where he knew the door should be. He could see it up ahead as he blindly rushed for it, but before he could reach out to open it, it vanished…_

_His hands touched only the wall, he was already burning hot from the fire behind him, very nearly burning his hands through his gloves. As panic began to cloud his mind, he did the thing one should never do in such a situation…_

_He looked back… only to see his family being burned alive…_

_They cried and screamed his name until they were no more than the fires of hell themselves._

_Now the flames started getting closer, seeking new prey like a predator. He couldn't move as the panic now overruled his mind, his hands blindly searching behind him for the door that was not there… But his efforts were wasted as the flames suddenly spread out to surround him, trapping him as they rose above him like a wave about to crash._

_The fire sprang forward like a viper pouncing its prey… he screamed as it engulfed him…_

"AAAAAH!"

Rallen woke with a start at the sound of his own scream, panting for breath as his eyes darted back and forth, searching for the flames that had been about to eat him up. When he saw none of the flames, felt none of the heat, he sighed in relief and dropped back down.

It was only a dream…

However, a second after that thought had passed, he blinked once and looked more closely at his surroundings.

'Wait… where am I, and why am I in a hospital bed?

After a few drowsy moments of thinking, Rallen remembered what had happened; he and Jeena had been on a regular patrol mission around Nanairo when something had smashed headlong into their ship.

Speaking of his partner…

As he looked to hos side, he noticed Jeena sleeping in the same bed as he was ('When did this happen?' he wondered to himself). They both had their arms around the other, so they were basically hugging each other, though he had no idea how that had happened, or who had even put them in a hospital bed together. Wasn't that unethical?

Just then, Jeena stirred and sleepily blinked her eyes.

"Ugh… Rallen…?" she groaned out, looking over at her partner.

"Yeah, Jeena?" he replied.

"…What happened…?"

***Flashback!**

Patrolling is never realy entertaining for anyone, especially when you're out in space for WAY too many days in a row with only one other person. It was even less so when your partner happened to be a bit of a hothead and very impatient.

"Geez… Jeena, are we done yet? Tonight's macaroni night and I don't want to miss it," Rallen said, keeping the ship on course while using one hand to pet Komainu.

Jeena rolled her eyes and replied with: "It's _always_ macaroni, Rallen. Can't you think of something other than your stomach?"

As if it had heard the question, Rallen's stomach chose that moment to rumble in protest. "I guess not," Rallen chuckled out. His partner merely rolled her eyes again.

"There's supposedly something lurking in this sector and we need to make sure that it, whatever it is, is no threat to us or the rest of Nanairo," Jeena explained with a touch of annoyance in her voice. They'd gone through this same kind of conversation many times before, and it was starting to get on her nerves a bit.

"Well, I'm sure it can wait until after dinner, right?"

But no sooner had Rallen made the offer than the alarms blared loudly only seconds before something huge slammed into their ship from the side, knocking both of them out of their seats and slamming into the wall, Komainu was sent sprawling across the floor with a whine of surprise.

"Urgh… I guess not!" Jeena shot back from her position on the wall just before the ship was hit again and sent them flat on the ground. Rallen grumbled something that Jeena didn't quite catch, but she didn't question what he'd said, as they were a bit too busy climbing their way back to the cockpit as the ship continued to twist around because of whatever was slamming into it.

Komainu was whining because he was having quite a bit of trouble with following, Rallen recalled the small Spectrobe back into the Prizmod.

The moment they made it to the cockpit again, whatever had smashed into their ship latched onto the windows in front of them, revealing a large shadowy creature that almost made Rallen's heart stop. He recognized it for what it was almost instantly, but he refused to believe it.

"Wait, a shadow? Could it be… nah, they disappeared after we killed Him," he said, quickly retaking the controls to avoid crashing into some nearby asteroid. "But then, what is that?"

Jeena also recognized it easily, though she couldn't believe it any more than Rallen. "Rallen! It's a Krawl!"

"You want me to believe that thing is a Krawl? No freaking way!"

Despite what Rallen said, he obviously didn't doubt Jeena; he just didn't want to admit it to himself yet. When the Krawl started banging on the window, gradually cracking it from the force, Rallen had little choice but to believe that it really was a Krawl.

"Jeena, shoot it!"

"No can do, Rallen," Jeena said slowly and with a touch of dread in her voice.

"WHAT! WHY?"

"The weapon system's offline… this thing must have targeted the guns when it hit us."

"So… what, we're defenseless?" Rallen asked even as another crack appeared in the window.

"Yeah, basically…" Jeena said, before she promptly ripped open a small glass casing and slammed her fist down on the red button under it.

After nodding to Rallen, the two ran back toward the escape pods. As much as Rallen wanted to stay and fight, in their current situation, there was no way to possibly win against this Krawl (even though Rallen still couldn't fully believe that it was one).

Just as they closed the pods after climbing into them, the Krawl broke through the window, the oxygen in the room was sucked out as it leaped through. But before the Krawl could reach their pods, the two officers were launched out into space, leaving the Krawl to screech after them in rage.

After that, Rallen had passed out…

"Oh…"

As his memory returned in full, Rallen remembered that the two of them had woken up the night before with some sleeping troubles. And in the end, Jeena had ended up moving to Rallen's bed to sleep. After that, they'd dozed off almost instantly.

For a moment, nothing was said and neither of the two moved, until they glanced at each other for a moment, and realized just how close they were. It took them a few seconds before they inched forward slowly…

This story has three possible continuations. Though this chapter similar to the beginning of a story on the FanFiction website, the follow-ups won't be. Each version of the next chapter will be for a different audience. One for children, one for young adults, and the last one for those people out there who are just _that much _ of a nerd.


	2. The New Threat

Version 1

Suddenly, Commander Grant slams open the door to the medical room in which Rallen and Jeena were put. He takes a quick look down at the two of them.

"Up and at 'em, you two, isn't forteen days enough sleep?" A second person yells as she enters the room.

"Commander!" Jeena shouts. She pushes Rallen away and stands at attention.

"P-Professor Kate, what are you doing here?" Rallen asks as he slowly stands up, "How long did you say we'd been sleeping?"

"Oh, just about two weeks," the dark skinned professor said calmly, "you were knocked unconscious, as I understand it, when you escaped your patrol cruiser."

"Yes," Commander Grant confirmed, "Luckily Professor Wright found your pods near the base of a volcano." He gave them a stern look. "Why exactly," he continued, "did you need the escape pods in the first place? I know that your ship was destroyed, we found the debris near your pods, but what destroyed your ship?"

Rallen looked at Jeena, expecting her to tell the Commander what had happened. She spoke with an uneasiness that scared Rallen, "I... I believe it was a... a..." She looked to Rallen desperately. It was obvious she didn't want to believe it was what it was, but she did anyway.

"It was a krawl," Rallen said flatly. This caused a look more grim than usual to come across the Commander's face.

"Rallen, Jeena, I want you in uniform and in my office in thirty minutes," the Commander said gruffly, "It seems as though our work is not yet finished." He left the room at that.

Rallen and Jeena looked at each other and realized they were wearing medical robes. Looking to the table between the two beds, they saw that their uniforms had been folded neatly and put there for when they woke up.

"You two be careful!" Professor Kate shouted after the cadets as they ran to the hallway, "those nasty krawl are nothing compared to the Commander when he's frustrated."

When they got to Commander Grant's office, Rallen and Jeena stood at attention in front of the large desk in the back of the room. The Commander came in through the side door that probably led to his quarters.

"So, Either Krux is back again, or the one thing we knew for sure about the krawl was wrong." The commander didn't sit down; he paced behind his desk with his eyes closed and his hand on his chin. "Well?"

"He's come back once in the past," Jeena pointed out.

"Yeah, and since he is half krawl, maybe the fall into the krawlosphere didn't affect him," Rallen suggested.

"Yes," the Commander muttered. He stopped pacing and his eyes flashed open. "Whatever's going on, I want you two to investigate it. You should start on Genshi, since that's where your ship crashed."

"Uh... Commander," Ralen hesitantly replied, "we don't have-"

"I'm giving you a _another_ new ship. It has all the same abilities as your old ship and then some," he slammed his hands against the desk and looked at them, "Try not to let this one blow up. Now go!"

Rallen flew the cruiser low over the surface of Genshi. "Where did you say our crash site was?" Rallen asked his partner.

"It should be somewhere around..." she looked up from the scanners and pointed down, "there it is. Why don't you bring the ship down in that patch of rock over there."

The debris was spread out over an area of almost four miles squared. So far all they had found was the card input system.

"Rallen!" Jeena shouted. "I think I found something!"

Rallen came running over to where Jeena was. She had found another piece of equipment. It was probably the lab system at one point, but now it was rubble. Luckily the memory storage device had managed to stay in one piece. As Rallen reached for the large memory block, a nasty screeching sound came from behind them.

"Krawl!" Rallen snarled through gritted teeth.

"Rallen, those aren't krawl!" Jeena yelped as she turned around.

This is the continuation of my "RallJeen or not to RallJeen" FanFic that is meant for the child audience. I want you guys, as the readers, to decide what that creature is and what happens next. Remember, I will only choose three people's ideas. This particular version of part two is based on the idea given to me by:

LjArtist.

Sorry, I don't know how to make links.

P.S.: If anyone guesses what I want the creature to be, I will accept their ideas every time for the rest of the series.


	3. The Tower

Jeena wrapped her arms tightly around Rallen and smiled. Rallen smiled back at her. They stayed like this for a few minutes.

Then Jeena's mind woke up. She looked down again at how close they were. She realized that the only things they were wearing were thin medical robes. She roughly pushed Rallen away from her and blushed bright red.

Rallen, still a little drowsy, could only manage a few nonsensical sounds of protest.

Suddenly, Commander Grant burst in. He was followed by an unexpected visitor.

"Neal?" Rallen and Jeena exclaimed almost simultaneously.

"Hi guys!" Neal said in that whiney voice of his. "Long time no see!"

"We don't have time for idle chatter." Commander Grant said. "I need you two in my office YESTERDAY. Understood?"

"Yes, Commander," Jeena said as she stood and saluted.

"Yes, Sir," Rallen said as he shakily got to his feet.

Once Rallen and Jeena were back in uniform, they quickly made their way to the Commander's office. They opened the door to a strange sight. Neal and Commander Grant were studying a large piece of brick that was on a transport cart.

"Ah, Rallen, Jeena, come in," Commander Grant said when he looked up and saw them at the door. "Neal discovered this ancient slab of text on Slayso."

"It broke my fall when I tripped on that antenna," Neal said.

"More like your fall broke it," Rallen retorted, "It's completely smashed!"

"Yes," Commander Grant stated bluntly, "most of the writing and illustration is illegible. However, we have been able to decipher some of the text."

Jeena stepped up to the tablet and quickly analyzed the lettering. "It's an ancient dialect, no one has spoken it for hundreds of thousands of years. My scanners say it's from before the age of terraforming."

"That's nice and all," Rallen said, "But what does it mean in English?"

"It's older than me." Commander Grant said to Rallen. "You're right, Jeena, it was left on Slayso before the people who left it were even able to live there. Our theory is it was part of some ship or experimental terraforming device."

"So, what's it say?" Rallen asked, obviously frustrated about not being able to understand the conversation.

The Commander looked at the tablet again. "It tells of a great scientific revolution. It was called, as we translate it, 'Project Gnome.' We still have not found any reference to the word 'gnome' in any records besides those of the museum."

"What's wrong with the museum's files?" Jeena asked.

"Nothing," Neal replied. "Except for the fact that the word gnome is in the fictional section of the museum's library."

Commander Grant closed his eyes and placed his hand on his chin. "There is something else on the tablet." Everyone looked to the place where Neal had landed. "Can you decipher it, Jeena?"

Jeena took a series of scans. "The data is pretty messed up, but I'll put what I could find up on screen."

The screen behind Commander Grant's desk flickered to life.

_... he created ... we are the ... crawlers and creepers ... we swear ... those who made ... gnome project failure ... we will ... must ... eternal ... blinding us to ... path ..._

"What does that mean?" Rallen asked boredly.

Commander slammed his hand against the tablet. "Rallen, pay attention! Whatever this 'Project Gnome' is, it created something. I have a little more than a hunch that it's got something to do with the krawl."

"What makes you say that, Commander?" Jeena asked.

"Three things," He responded, "One: the term 'krawlers' comes up in the script. Two: Neal found this on the same day that you defeated Krux. Three: That." He pointed to a cracked carving of a common swar on the tablet.

"But, Sir," Jeena exclaimed, "This tablet is hundreds of thousands of years old, how could krawl have been around then without the ancients being devoured?"

"I don't know." Said the commander.

After a while of everyone else doing nothing, Rallen piped up, "So... what are our orders?"

"Right," Commander Grant said, "you two are to go to Slayso and enter the tower, but this time go down, not up."

Rallen and Jeena looked at each other. "But, Sri..." Jeena started.

"Yes, I remember that your ship is destroyed. To prevent this from happening again, I am permitting you to use a frigate instead of a patrol cruiser." Commander Grant handed Jeena a "brief" manual telling about every aspect of the two-person frigate.

This is not my best work, but I had to work with what was given to me. Special thanks to

clessxmint

for the idea for this chapter. Feel free to post your ideas for the next in the series. I want people to try to fill in the blanks in the tablet too. Remember, only three people's ideas will be chose, so post post post.

Also, bear in mind that when I'm choosing an idea, I'm looking for one idea that I can direct towards a young audience, one I can direct towards a teen audience, and one I can direct to a more adult audience.

P.S.: If anyone can guess the underlying conspiracy I intended this story to have, I will use their ideas every time for the rest of the series.


	4. Homeworld Bound

Although this is technically the chapter for adults, nothing really "adult" actually happens, and they won't happen until someone asks for them. *hint hint

Meanwhile...

"Master Krux," the tall blue creature said pleadingly, "this time I have truly discovered something of value. I have found a way to defeat the young spectrobe master!"

"That is precisely what you said last time, but when I followed you to the supposed solution, it was a simple record of the humans' history." The cloaked figure said through his mask. It was obvious that he was disappointed in his new high krawl. It seemed as though good help was impossible to find.

As though reading Krux's thoughts, the creature said, "but Master, this information could allow you to build an army of high krawl."

Krux thought this over a moment. "Where did you find this information?" Krux asked suspiciously. "I sent you to scout the Nanairo system."

"While I was scouting," the creature explained, "I ran into a patrol cruiser. I thought 'why not' and I kinda... sorta... destroyed it..."

"Were there any survivors?" Krux asked, frustrated by the fact that no one listened to him.

"The escape pods launched, but there's no proof that anyone was inside."

"You imbecile!" Krux shouted. "Now they know that the krawl are still alive! They'll have the spectrobe masters armed and ready by the time we get there."

"I still haven't told you where I found the info." The blue creature pointed out.

"Continue, then." Krux replied, quieting down slightly.

"So, after I had destroyed the ship, I had completely lost my sense of direction. I mindlessly wandered into a portal. I found myself in a mysterious star system with very primitive ruins on each planet. I found a data record on an ancient computing device orbiting the big, stormy planet. After further inspection, I found it was a simple, four-letter code for turning any animal into any other animal." The creature managed to say in a single breath.

"Any animal into any other animal..." Krux said thoughtfully. "What is the name of this system? Does anything inhabit it any more?"

"From other databases, I found that the star is called 'Sol.' The only life forms that could pose a threat are an intelligent race of non-humanoid beings on the ninth planet from the star and on its moon. The ancient peoples referred to them as 'Ooblajig.'"

"Before we start the invasion," said master Krux, "I want you to return to the Solar System and find any information on ALL life forms. Especially the Ooblajig."

The tall blue creature slinks out of the thrown room.

Back in the NPP Medical Wing

Rallen and Jeena were still clinging tightly to one another. The events of the attack were still near the front of their minds. Was that thing really a krawl? Didn't they destroy Krux? What do they do now?

These questions could wait until later.

Jeena had finally woken up (three hours after she opened her eyes). She noticed something was... wrong... She looked down and noticed that neither she nor Rallen were wearing any clothes. "Get off of me!" she grunted at Rallen.

Rallen, who had been fully awake he whole time, said, "I-I didn't know..."

"What didn't you know?" Jeena retorted in a harsh whisper. "That we were naked or that I wouldn't like it?"

"Well, I though since... y'know... you were the one who came over to me..." He was completely hopeless.

"Just... stay on your side of the bed. 'Kay?" Jeena said a little more softly.

This surprised Rallen. He didn't expect a calm reaction after less than a few minutes. He very slowly inched towards Jeena and tried to whisper a question to her.

Jeena's initial response was to blush and force herself not to smile. Then she just pushed Rallen back onto his side of the bed. This time, they were both confused by her action. They both knew that that particular inside joke always made Jeena laugh, but for some reason, she didn't even chuckle. Jeena was more concerned by the fact that she was pushing Rallen away. Hadn't she always...? No. No, she was just not... or was she?

A medic ran into the room and threw a bundle containing a new NPP uniform for each of the cadets. "Quick-get-into-this,-the-commander-is-coming!" she quickly shouted as she ran by, not even noticing the position the two were in.

Jeena had no trouble at all turning away from Rallen to put on her uniform. Rallen however...

"Stop it, Rallen," Jeena said in her kind-of-frustradted voice, "I know you're looking." He tried his best to avert his eyes, but she was just so...

Rallena and Jeena were dressed and ready when Commander Grant walked in. They both saluted. Then the unexpected guest arrived. It was no creature either of them had seen before. It had a scaly face with huge lips around a giant mouth. It's back had a strange hunch and was covered in down. Out from the down came four large feathers on each side and a pair of butterfly wings. Its torso was just a thin tube, which connected its hunch to its enormous stomach region. Its three-part legs led to huge, human-like feet with nasty claws where nails should be. Then the tail. The tail ended in a huge club covered in spikes and was covered in protective plates.

"Commander," Jeena asked, "do I have permission to ask who our guest is?"

"I was actually hoping you would ask." Commander Grant said as he surprised them with a smile. "This is an ambassador from our new galactic ally. He has just informed us that the thing that hit your cruiser might well be a krawl."

The strange being spread out its feathers and bowed deeply. Its color changed from dark purple with icy blue patches to a vibrant green with red stripes. When it stood back upright, it went back to its 'normal' colors. "I underrstaand you twoo arre the besst krawl hunerrss in this sysstem."

Both Rallen and Jeena were taken aback by the fact that it could speak their language so fluently and by its strange greeting. Ralen reached his hand forward for a handshake. The ooblajig cringed. It relaxed when it realized Rallen's hand was empty.

"Sorrry, ourr speciess have not haad goood rrelationss with thee humaanss." Re reached forward and shook Rallen's hand. "I am Isaarf XXIV. One of myy grreat aancestorss wass the one whoo maade it posssible for humanss to livve lonng ennough to travell into the outerr gaalaxxy."

"He invented Advanced Cryo?" Jeena asked.

"No, he wass lonng dead whenn thaat was disscoverred. He invennted a sysstem thaat allowwed one of the nationss on the huumans' home worrlld to rreversre a nassty prrocesss called 'globaall warminng.'" Isaarf XXIV replied.

"But that would mea-" Jeena was interrupted by Commander Grant.

"We can talk about this later, now we have to focus on the krawl."

"Quite right!" said Isaarf in a completely different voice. "Now then, The Ooblajig have monitored human colonies in the Solar System since the humans invented the pointed stick. Four Kollin-days ago, we spotted a strange blue creature in the Gas giant's orbit. We thought we had misread the signals because the creature had no protective gear on. We scanned several more times before finally deciding to send a probe to the scene. Just as we launched the probe, the creature changed directions and flew into one of the abandoned satellites."

"Abandoned?" Rallen asked. "Why was it abandoned?"

"The entire Solar System was abandoned hundreds of thousands of years ago. None of the other empires in the Tristellar Alliance know what happened." Isaarf continued to babble. "When the creature left, we sent the probe to inspect the satellite. It found that the memory storage device had been activated."

"What was on this memory storage device?" Jeena asked.

"Just some basic information about the human G-nome." Isaarf replied.

"Basically, this was just the long-winded way of saying: the krawl are back and have information to use against us." The Commander stated bluntly. "I'll se you three in my office in three hours to discuss a plan. Isaarf, show these two to their new ship."

Isaarf bowed again and the two officers saluted as Commander Grant turned to leave.

Part of this story came from 92dragon's idea.

I don't own spectrobes or any of the spectrobes characters. I also don't own the Solar system. I do, however, own the entire Ooblajig species and Isaarf.

Please leave practical comments saying what you want to happen next. Remember only three will be chosen: two for the teen audience, and one for the adult audience. (usually one is for the child audience, but since this one was already technically for the teen/adult audience, I can't follow it with a children's chapter.)


	5. New Threat: Triloth Chronicles

Tier 1 Chapter 3 Version 1

"Then what-" Rallen started as he turned around. What he saw when he turned around was a surprise to say the least. Standing behind them was a pair of half-human creatures with torsos similar to reptilian tails.

The creatures screeched again and began to circle the two. One of the creatures reached down and picked up a piece of the debris.

Rallen jumped to his feet and mentally prepared himself for a fight. Jeena sat and observed their actions. Rather than coming towards them, the strange creatures just watched the pair as they moved slowly around the crash site, picking up debris. When they had gone full-circle, the two laid down their pieces of the ship in a pattern.

"What are they doing?" Rallen asked Jeena over his shoulder.

"Look at them." Jeena replied, obviously transfixed by what the beings were doing. "They're spelling something out using the pieces of our ship."

Every once in a while one of the creatures would snap at the other for doing something wrong. When the snake-people had finished, they inched back and bowed their heads toward Jeena.

Jeena carefully stepped forward to look at what they had spelled. 'We nede yor help' was clearly spelled out in front of her. Rallen then moved forward to see the same thing.

"Me?" Jeena mouthed as she pointed to herself in disbelief.

"Her?" Rallen said as he, also not believing what was implied, pointed to his partner. The snake-people simply nodded their heads in reply.

"E... uh... W-With what?" Jeena stuttered. One of the creatures twisted its head and used it to gesture that they should follow. The two beings slithered away. Rallen, being his brash, irresponsible self, immediately ran after them, but Jeena was hesitant to follow.

The snake-people used their heads to gesture to one another in turn, telling the two cadets that they were named Golth and Fadar. Golth, probably the superior of the two, led the group over a mound of soil to one of Genshi's famous marshes. There the two officers saw what had first put them in this situation: the krawl-like ship belonged to the two creatures.

After reluctantly following the snake-people onto their ship, Rallen and Jeena were told to sit down... in their own language.

"H-How is it that we can understand you two now?" Jeena asked supiciously.

"The atmosphere onboard this ship is filled with microscopic devices which take in sound and release it in the language of the nearby organisms." Golth explained.

"Now to business," Fadar said, "We are sorry that we had to destroy your ship to get attention, but it was the only way to contact you."

"Why didn't you just open a com-link discussion with us while we were in space?" Jeena asked skeptically.

"These devices only work is there are organisms nearby. If we had contacted you all you would have heard is our language." Golth elaborated. "Because you are humans, you would have perceived our language as a threat."

"Don't start us off on that tangent again, Golth." Fadar scolded. "We need your help, Pink Haired one. That is why we had to contact you. You may be the key to our race's survival. You see, we've had a run-in with another branch of the human race. A much more violent one."

"If it's a fighter you wanted," Jeena said, "Then why come for me?"

"You did not let us finish," Fadar replied, "These humans are driven by a strange disease to attack the nearest target-able beings. Those beings happen to be us, the Triloths. We received word of a great field scientist from the star Nanairo. We suspect that you are it."

"Who told you I was a great field scientist?" Jeena asked with a mix of worry and flattery in her voice.

"Our source on Wyterra told us of your achievements." Golth explained.

"That's good enough for me!" Rallen exclaimed. "Let's do this! Let's go!"

"I'm sorry male-ling," Fadar said, "But the Pink Haired one must do this alone."

WHAT? You decide what happens next! Please leave a comment telling exactly what you want to happen next! Remember, I only pick three ideas, so post early.

Thanks to 92darkdragon for the idea.


	6. New Threat: SpectroCraft

Tier 1 Chapter 3 Version 2

The creatures repeated the strange screech.

"If they're not krawl," Rallen started, "then what are they?" Rallen turned around to see four bipedal creatures with stubby arms. They had strange pincers on either side of their mouths. Two large claws were hanging over the shoulders of each. One of them had shriveled insect wings growing from its hips.

"What are they?" Rallen asked.

"I don't know, but we don't want to provoke an attack. Those claws look like they could cut through steel plating." Jeena replied,

The four creatures started to spread apart so that they formed a square around the two officers. They planned to attack with a full surround. It was then apparent that these beings were hostile.

Rallen flipped open his prizmod, preparing to fight. Jeena analyzed the situation to find which weapon she should use.

"Kekeke!" the winged creature shrieked as it and its brethren leapt into battle.

Rallen called out Spikan who immediately deflected the first two creatures with his enormous hands. Jeena swung her cosmosword, which was the best weapon against these fast-moving opponents, at the pouncing beast to her left while dodging the one to her right. The being switched direction in mid-leap and managed to only lose an arm to Jeena's assault. It stumbled back behind its friends. Jeena, while holding off the other creature, watched in amazement as the arm of the injured monster slowly regenerated.

"Rallen," Jeena shouted over her shoulder, "we can't let these guys break away from their group. When they're not being attacked, they heal themselves."

"Easier said than done." Rallen replied. "These guys are tough."

Two of the creatures found their way around to Spikan's back and pounced. Just as they were about to dig their claws into the spectrobe's back, they were both struck down by some sort of weapon.

"Die, Zergling bastards, die!" shouted the holder of the weapon. The mysterious fighter continued to send projectiles through the bodies of the creatures.

This made it much easier for Rallen and Jeena to finish off the last two. After ensuring that the beasts were dead, Rallen called Spikan back into the Prizmod. He and Jeena turned to the person who had helped them out.

"Who are you?" Jeena asked. "What were those things?"

"My name is Nova." Said Nova as she removed her scanner mask. "Those creatures you just fought were called zerglings. The problem with these creatures is, if there's one, there's one hell of a lot more. So, what are your names and why were you cornered by zerglings in a crash site with some sort of mutated goat?"

"First of all," Rallen explained, a little agitated by what she had said, "he's not a 'goat,' he's a Spikan. And also, I'm—"

"Rallen!" Jeena snapped at her partner. "Excuse him, he tends to take everything personally. I'm Jeena. This is my partner, Rallen. We're here to salvage what's left from when our ship crashed here. We don't know why the creatures decided to attack us."

"Why were you flying a ship through this sector anyway?" Nova asked. "Our scanners marked this planet as uninhabitable."

"I don't know why they would say that," Jeena replied curiously, "because humans have lived here for hundreds of years. We were passing through here on a patrol mission. Our ship was hit by something and we crashed, so we came back to search the wreckage."

"If your scanners are as primitive as your weapons, I wouldn't be surprised if you thought Kollin was uninhabitable." Rallen grumbled.

"Do you have to deal with this guy every day?" Nova asked Jeena in amazement.

"He doesn't usually act like this." Jeena responded. "He's just mad that you made fun of Spikan."

"We can talk about this later." Nova said. "Right now we should evacuate the planet."

"Why?" Rallen asked in a much lighter tone.

"Where there are zerglings, there's a hatchery." Nova explained. "If the Zerg get infesters, the humans on this planet will be doomed."

The ground began to shake. A giant dust cloud formed on the horizon. Nova whispered something to herself and then put two fingers to the device on the side of her head.

"We have to go now!" Nova shouted over the increasing volume of the tremors. "The Zerg are sending a rush."

Nova pulled a microphone out from her headpiece and spoke into it. "Swan, I need a medivac down hare right now! I've got two natives with me."

Rallen and Jeena followed Nova onboard a large aircraft. Once inside, the two patrol officers were disgusted by the horrid conditions of the ship's interior. The walls were rusted, the seats were falling apart, and there were needles filled with suspicious green liquid stacked everywhere.

"Welcome to the flying meat wagon," said the pilot of the craft.

"We don't have time for your snide remarks, just get us to the cruiser!" Nova shouted angrily.

"ETA: one minute," the driver replied.

Rallen and Jeena looked down at the rush of zerglings below them. The size of the army was incredible. There was no possible way all of those creatures fit into the ship that crashed the patrol cruiser.

"Status report," Nova said into her microphone. After a few nods, Nova turned to Jeena and said. "We might not be able to evacuate the planet at the rate that these zerg are growing. We'll need your help in this."

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the authority to do that, we're going to have to talk to my superiors." Jeena replied hesitantly.

After a while, much more than a minute mind you, the medivac docked into a large ship that could easily be mistaken for a small, oddly-shapen planet. In the armory of the enormous ship, they met up with the guy Nova had called "Swan." His enormous metal claw and uncut facial hair were the first two things Rallen and Jeena noticed about him.

"How's it goin', Nova?" He said in a deep growley voice. "Does it smell like victory er what?"

"Swan, we've got a problem." Nova said bluntly. "The zerg army on this planet below us has already reached the 75-supply mark just with zerglings."

"Jim ain't gonna like to hear that..." Swan replied. Then he looked to either side of Nova. "So, uh, who's your friends?"

"This is Jeena and Rallen, the natives I told you about." Nova said, jesturing to each one as she said their names. "I found them fighting four zerglings using only a pair of swords, and they were being helped by some sort of alien creature. I believe it was called 'Spike-can' or simethiong."

Rallen opened his Prizmod and summoned out Spikan.

"Show off." Jeena grunted.

"Put that guy back!" Swan shouted, "he'll break everything!" Rallen rolled his eyes and did as Swan told him. Spikan hadn't even moved from his spot, let alone broken anything.

"So, Jeena, we need to talk to your superiors before we can evacuate the planet?" Nova said, completely changing subjects. "Where are your superiors?"

"They're on the third planet from Nanairo, Kollin." Jeena explained. "You're not planning on taking a medivac down onto Kollin, are you?"

"No, we'll be traveling in style." Nova responded.

"Matt," Nova called as she entered the Battle Cruiser's control room, "We need to get to the third planet in this system, but the rest of the fleet has to watch the zerg forces."

"Alright," said Matt, "I'll tell the rest of the fleet."

"You hailed?" an old man with a false eye said in a thick Russian accent over the telecomunicator. "All crews reporting. The Yomato is loaded."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Matt said. "I want you and the rest of the fleet to stay here while I run an errand."

"I have an announcement:" said the pilot of the other cruiser, "I am drunk"

"Well, sober up and follow orders!" Matt yelled at the screen.

"Acknowledged... whatever that means." The pilot replied.

"These are drop pods." Nova explained. "They are much cleaner and smoother than medivacs, but we can only take one for non-military transport."

"These look like their designed for a single person." Rallen commented.

"That's because they are." Nova replied with a 'well, duh' look in her face. "We're going to have to squeeze in here pretty tightly."

Nova stepped into the pod and gestured that Jeena should follow. When it was Rallen's turn, he was hesitant to say the least. "Do we really have to cram in there like that? I mean, isn't there some other non-medivac transportation?"

"No," Nova said bluntly. "I made a point to put Jeena between you and I, anyway, and since you guys are partners I figured you'd be okay with being this close together."

"Uh, Nova," Jeena said over her shoulder, "we're not those kind of partners. Rallen and I are work partners, nothing more."

"Oh... well, Rallen, you have two choices, you can squeeze in here, or you can stay on board the ship and watch the action from a distance." Nova said. She already knew what Rallen was going to choose.

No prizes to the people who guess what Nova is thinking. This is a continuation of my interactive FanFic "RallJeen or not to RallJeen." This particular chapter is for the teen/adult audience, but feel free to come up with more kid-friendly ideas for upcoming chapters.

I want you, the readers, to comment on/review this story and tell me what you want to happen next, I only three people's ideas, so get posting!

I don't own Spectrobes or Starcraft or any of the characters mentioned.


	7. New Threat: Halo

Tier 1 Chapter 3 Version 3

"If they're not krawl, then what-" Rallen cut himself off as he turned around. Standing there in the middle of their ship's wreckage was a strange looking creature with what appeared to be a weapon.

"What is that thing?" Jeena asked.

"If you don't know, I don't know," Rallen replied.

"Maybe it's friendly..." Jeena suggested taking a step closer.

The creature put its beady, red eye up to the side of the weapon and fired at them. The green pulse of energy moved slowly enough to allow Rallen and Jeena time to jump out of the way.

"Maybe not," Rallen said in possibly the most cliché way ever.

The creature squealed as he hastily fired off a series of shots in the general direction of Rallen and Jeena. Then the weapon began to overheat and it took a while for the creature to fire its next shot. During this delay, Rallen called out Dongiga from his Prizmod.

"If it's going to attack us, we'll just have to attack it! Iku ze!" Rallen shouted as he leapt towards this strange opponent.

The tiny creature, seeing the gargantuan creature coming after it, screamed and fled from his foes. As it ran, its arms flailed above its head wildly. Dongiga, after a command from Rallen, fired his special move. His gullet inflated as a grumbling noise could be heard. Before the creature could run out of range, it was run over by a large cluster of lava rocks.

"That was completely unnecessary, Rallen!" Jeena shouted at her grinning partner. "It easily could have been a misunderstanding."

"How was that a misunderstanding?" Rallen asked in disbelief. "you said it might be friendly so it shot at us!"

"It didn't fire until I got close to it, there's still a possibility that it was just curious about us." Jeena explained. "Of course we can't exactly figure it out now, can we?"

Rallen hated it when she was right, which was almost always.

"C'mon," Rallen said, changing the subject, "with any luck the bio-scanner will still be in one piece."

Though they didn't find the bio-scanner, Rallen and Jeena did find another ship rech nearby. This ship had been smooth like theirs, but had an eerie purple color to it. Scattered around the wreckage were cryo-stasis pods. One of them was open and had an empty drawer inside.

"You don't think that creature we saw came down in this pod, do you?" Jeena asked no one in particular. She knew Rallen wasn't paying attention.

The red haired pilot had began looking for the remains of the cockpit. He found a good-sized piece of it lodged between two rocks. There was some strange writing on the control panels. He called his partner over to help him dislodge the chunk of metal.

"Can you translate it?" Rallen asked after almost five minutes of Jeena scanning the symbols.

"I think so, but it doesn't all make sense." She checked her scanner one more time and began reading. " 'Covenant Battle Cruiser Alpha-G 707, Armory class 2. Built to carry Grunts and Elites along with one or fewer Flood.' That's all it says."

"Maybe some other part of the ship will help us make sense of this." Rallen suggested.

Jeena walked over to one of the cryo-stasis pods and began to scan the surface. As her scanner interface passed over the locking mechanism of the pod, it unlocked itself. This must have sent some sort of signal, because the rest of the pods also began to open.

"Jeena," Rallen asked out of terror, "what did you do?"

Oh no! What will happen next? You decide! This is an interactive fanfic, meaning that the readers leave comments/reviews about what they want to happen next.

I only pick three ideas per variation, so hurry up and post 'em!

This Spectrobes/Halo crossover was the idea of Nick4120 on the FanFiction website.


	8. The Tower: Stowaways

Tier 2 Chapter 3 version 1

As Rallen and Jeena approached their new frigate, they saw just how big it really was. It wasn't as large as the Ancient Starship, mind you, but it was nearly thrice the size of their old cruiser.

Jeena dusted off the control panels in the cockpit.

"How long has it been since someone took this baby for a spin?" Rallen wondered out loud.

"The ship itself has been remodeled multiple times, but no one has actually piloted it for fifty three years." Jeena remembered from the manual. "There hasn't been a need for frigates since the last war."

"I just hope it still flies," Rallen said.

Rallen sat in the pilot's chair and waited as Jeena installed the different pieces of spectrobe related equipment that their old cruiser had had.

"Done and done," Jeena said as she sat in the chair next to Rallen's, "now let's hope she starts."

After nearly ripping NPP Headquarters off of its foundations, the frigate sped towards the portal in sector W. Somehow, the two officers had gotten used to the travels through the portals.

"Maybe we should stop on Wyterra and get the Cosmolink," Rallen suggested, smiling at Jeena. "Unless you've had enough action for one lifetime."

"If I'd had too much action in my life, I'd have requested a different partner a long time ago," Jeena responded, mirroring the smile.

"Greetings, Spectrobe Masters," Radese said joyously. "What turn of events has led you to grace us with your presence?"

"It's about the Krawl," Rallen started.

"Say no more," Redese cut Rallen off as he held up the two parts of the Cosmolink.

"Thanks Radese," Jeena said.

"It is no trouble at all to help you, besides, helping you is the equivalent of helping ourselves." Radese said before turning and walking back to Haven.

Back onboard the frigate, Rallen noticed that something didn't feel right. About half way between Wytarra and Slayso, Rallen finally realized what was wrong.

"Kamtoga, I know you're here," Rallen shouted over his shoulder. "I can smell you a mile away."

Kamtoga reluctantly came up the elevator and into the cockpit. "Do I really work out that much?" He asked Rallen who was smiling triumphantly. "Well then, if you're so clever, who else is on board?"

"What?" Jeena shouted. "How many stow-aways are there on this frigate?"

"Hi guys!" Neal whined as he stepped out of the weapon closet. "I thought I'd join you since I know all about the tower on Slayso."

"Okay," Rallen tried to understand what was going on, "Neal snuck on before we left headquarters, and Kamtoga got on when we stopped on Wyterra. Who else could have possibly gotten into this ship while we weren't looking?"

Fortunately, no one answered him.

Tidy and Scout greeted the party on the surface of Slayso. "Waaaa-aaaa-aaaaaah!"

"Y'know, I almost missed that salutation of yours," Rallen said sarcastically.

The four followed the two robots into the tower. The elevator at the other end of the circular first floor only goes up.

"So, Neal," Jeena asked, "how do we go down?"

"Like this," Neal replied as he walked into the middle of the circular floor and jumped. Upon impact, the center of the room slid down into a giant spiral staircase.

"So how do we get down?" Rallen inquired. "Where's the elevator?"

Jeena looked at her partner in surprise. "Don't tell me you've never used stairs before," she said, exasperated.

"I've never even heard of stairs," Rallen replied bluntly. "Is it like an escalator?"

Jeena, Kamtoga, and Neal demonstrated how 'stairs' worked. It took a while for Rallen to get the hang of it.

The party of four then descended into the depths of Slayso's tower.

You see? This is why I made this an interactive fanfic. I'm not good at coming up with my own stories. Please continue reading and contributing to find out what happens next.

I don't own Spectrobes or any of the characters mentioned above.


	9. The Tower: Gijinka

Tier 2 Chapter 3 Version 2

"Now approaching Sector W," the computerized, but surprisingly feminine, voice of the Frigate said over the intercom. "Preparing Dimensional Warp field. Captain, we have a minor anomaly en route."

"Uhhhh..." Rallen was still a little shaken by the fact that the ship spoke back. "I-is is anything y-you can identify?"

"Appears human," the Frigate said, "but it gives off a pattern of light waves which can only be identified as Spectral." The data showed up on-screen.

"Uh, continue with programmed mission, but, uhhh... use caution...?" Rallen couldn't quite grasp the set of commands Jeena had told him about. The term 'be careful' would have been read as 'turn on all weapons and shoot unidentified objects' while 'just go ahead' would be misread as 'change course to directly foreward.'

The portal opened and closed around the ship as it began its journey to the Kaio system.

About halfway between the two ends of the portal, a loud thunk could be heard coming from the direction of the airlocks. Rallen, not accustomed to the use of airlocks, jumped up and ran to the door. When he opened the door to see what had made the sound, all the air on the top floor of the ship began being sucked out.

"Close that door, you idiot!" Jeena shouted over her shoulder. Rallen quickly slammed the door before all the oxygen was leeched from his lungs.

"Computer... uh..." Rallen tried to remember the proper command.

"I have a name," the frigate retorted with what could almost be described as frustration in her/its mechanical voice.

"Oh... right..." Rallen stuttered. "Jeena, what's our ship's name?"

"I wasn't aware it had one," Jeena replied with a shrug.

"It's Artemis," the computer voice explained, "you two should have noticed that it's written across my hull."

"Jeena, is the T-800 series supposed to have a personality?" Rallen asked Jeena Quetly.

"Ahem!" the computer... coughed?... "weren't you trying to ask me to do something?"

"Right, uh..." Rallen stuttered. "Artemis, close outer airlock door number two, then open inner airlock door number two... please..."

"Command received, acting... now," Artemis said in her usual monotonous voice.

What came in through the airlock was not like anything either of the NPP officers had ever seen. He looked human, but there were definite features that were similar to a Vilamasta. He had a large horn-like structure with two prongs at the end that emerged from his forehead. Draped over his shoulders were two stone-like wing cases. The backs of his hands had elliptical rubies embedded into them, and his fingers were tipped by claw-like fingernails. There were multiple other features that made him similar to a Spectrobe, but they were too small to notice at the time.

"Spectrobe masters!" the strange man said as he bowed in a way that was creepily similar to the way Jado bows to Krux. "I have searched the galaxy for the two of you, but more importantly, I was looking for you," he then reached forward and held Jeena's right hand in his claws.

"I think you've got the wrong person," Jeena said shakily. "I'm not a real Spectrobe master, I just help Rallen when we're in Kaio." She then pulled her hand away.

"You misunderstand me," the being stated as he stood up. "Because you have wielded the Spectrobes' power once before, you are just as much a Spectrobe master as he, but that is not why you are the one I sought. I came to you so that we may form the ultimate Spectrobe master."

"We?" Jeena asked in astonishment. "Who, we? You and me, we, or you and an occult group, we? Who is 'we'?"

"You and I are to form the ultimate Spectrobe master," he said with dramatic enphasis. "Think about it, the krawl would tremble at our child's every step."

"Wait! Hold on a minute!" Rallen shouted at the top of his lungs. "Your child? As in... what exactly are you implying?"

"Warning," Artemis said over the intercom, "testosterone is at a dangerous level, caution is advised."

"It is as I said," the man stated flatly. "I wish for a child by Jeena."

"What?" Rallen and Jeena shouted simultaneously.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy writing this chapter. I just can't believe I didn't think about this on my own.

Special thanks to Twiliunicorn for this idea, it was awesome!

I am once again forced to put down that: This is an interactive fanfic, I need people to read and contribute to it or else it will FAIL. So far I've loved the crossover ideas almost as much as the rest of them, and when I say I'll accept any idea, I mean I will even accept a Spectrobes/Hetalia crossover idea.

I don't own Spectrobes or any copyrighted blah blah blah and the kitchen sink.


	10. The Tower: Origins

Tier 2 Chapter 3 Version 3

When Rallen and Jeena arrived on Slayso, they noticed that something seemed... off... about the tower. Something just didn't seem quite right.

"Does the tower seem taller than the last time we were here?" Rallen asked Jeena.

"N-no, it's just an illusion caused by the lack of the... uh..." Jeena couldn't find the right words to respond to her partner's question. "Let's just call it our imaginations and get inside."

Once inside the first floor of the tower, the sense that something was wrong only got worse. The elevator was waiting, shield down, for the two cadets. This just increased Rallen and Jeena's suspicion as neither Tidy nor Scout could have sent down the elevator without coming down themselves.

"Well," Rallen started towards the elevator, "down we go." He stepped into the elevator and was followed by Komainu and Jeena. As if the elevator had sensed the direction the two wanted to go in, it immediately lifted the shield and began its descent.

"Is it just me," Rallen inquired, "or is the elevator going at a third of its normal rate?"

"I'd have to check your math on that, but it's definitely moving slower than usual," Jeena replied. The elevator was soon completely surrounded by the darkness of Slayso's subterranean world. Through the clear walls of the elevator, Rallen and Jeena could see only the occasional blue light moving by to signal that the elevator had power.

"Do you hear that?" Jeena said as a light rumbling emanated from the shaft around them.

"If I say 'no', will it go away?" Rallen replied with his own question.

The elevator slowly descended into a wide cavern. It was lit by a primitive form of artificial light. Some of the light emitters were dimmed or not lit at all. Across the room, a series of tube-like structures was lined up in columns and rows. Strange shapes floated in some of these tubes.

"Jeena, does this look like anything you've seen before?" Rallen asked his partner in shock.

"Not that I'm aware of. It looks very similar to the stasis pods in our ship, but it doesn't directly resemble any sort of prototypes I've read about," Jeena thoughtfully responded. "I'll need a closer look."

The elevator finally touched down on the floor of this strange room. While Jeena walked straight over to the tube-like structures for a closer examination, Rallen and Komainu sniffed around the rest of the room. Rallen couldn't help but think that there was something else here, something he wasn't seeing.

"Rallen!" Jeena shouted in shock as she realied what she was looking at. Rallen and Komainu came running over to where Jeena was standing and looked at the glass tube in front of them. It was held in place by stone rings at the top and bottom that connected to the floor and ceiling of the room. The tube was filled with some sort of ice-like solid with an odd blue color to it. Encased in the ice was a creature with two legs that were human enough, but it's upper body was amoebic in look.

"What is that thing, Jeena?" Rallen inquired incredulously.

"I-I think it was human..." she relied quietly, "but it's not anymore. By the amount of frozen precipitation on these tubes, I'd say these creatures were frozen around the same time that that tablet was carved. I saw some broken tubes farther back, maybe we should check them out."

As they approached a broken tube, Komainu suddenly ran forward and barked fiercely at a particular chunk of ice. When the two cadets saw exactly what was in the ice, they gasped. Encased in a thick sheet of ice was a common Swar.

"B-but how?" Jeena stuttered. "How did they capture a krawl with their primitive technology, while ours fails to even deal significant damage?"

"What if these krawl aren't captives?" Rallen suggested. This got him a strange look from Jeena. "I mean, how would you explain a creature with the leags of a human, but the torso of a Blova? What if this room isn't a prison? What if it's some sorta lab?"

Before Jeena could reply, Komainu ran off again. This time, the little red creature headed towards a large control panel on the opposite side of the tubes from the elevator. After closer inspection, the panel closely resembled the controls in the ancient starship. There was a cavity in the panel that was shaped almost exactly like Rallen's prizmod. When Rallen inserted the prizmod into this slot, the entire room seemed to suddenly surge with energy. The dimming lights suddenly began to glow brighter than Nanairo and the frozen tubes quickly began to thaw.

"Rallen, pull out the prizmod!" Jeen shouted at the top of her lungs. The small device was firmly latched in place, though. The krawl that were free from their tubes began to head towards the control panel. The still sealed tubes began to churn as the creatures inside continued their interrupted metamorphosis.

"If I can't get the prizmod out of here, then I can't summon any spectrobes!" Rallen shouted as the krawl quickly approached. Just as the krawl seemed as though they would lash out at the two, they stopped in their tracks. Rallen stopped trying to remove the prizmod from the trap on the panel. "Aren't they going to attack?"

The krawl then did something that neither Rallen nor Jeena had expected. They spoke. They spoke an ancient dialect that Jeena had to get her audio scanner to translate for them.

"Who are you? Is the project complete? Are we adaptationals now?" Jeena was speechless. Rallen, however, was not. Jeena reversed the setting on her scanner so that the krawl could understand Rallen.

"We are members of the Nanairo Planatery Patrol," Rallen introduced himself and Jeena. "We don't know anything about your 'project,' but what we do know is that you are a race of high threat level beings who are no to be shown any form of mercy under any circumstances. I think we can count this as an exception."

"Nanairo..." several krawl muttered. Then they looked around at each other, noticing their odd appearances. They recoiled from each other and began frantically looking around the room. "What happened to us?"

"Using the data in this lab's memory bank, I can assume that you were part of a failed attempt at adaptatio called 'Project Genome-Fix,' The project was originally scheduled to be shut down when you first showed signs of unanticipated mutation, but the scientists continued the project." Jeena explained.

"They knew that this is what we were becoming?" The Swar asked to no one in particular. "They knew, and yet they continued to change us. What of the others? I suspect the broken tanks that are unaccounted for - Jim, Caleb, Martha, Sam, Helen, George, Dan – are all dead."

"Actually," Rallen started, "I think something worse than death got them."

"Tell me," Jeena began to interrogate these new krawl, "do you feel any sort of violent impulse or odd craving?"

The Swar looked between them for a while before saying, "I'm not getting any good vibrations from that dog of yours, but other than that... Wait, what was your friend saying about worse than death?"

"I think your friends escaped from this facility and created a new genus that we know as 'krawl,'" Rallen replied. This could possibly be the smartest thing he's ever said.

"Krawl?" the Swar asked, "In what ways are we like these... krawl?"

"Your appearance is, so far, the only resemblance," Jeena said. "This light would normally drive krawl mad. Most krawl can't, and wouldn't want to, communicate with humans."

"I can't believe those people were turned into a high threat level species while we're just a bunch of freaks. What exactly do these 'krawl' do to make them so threatening?" an approaching Blova inquired.

"They devour planets and stars," Rallen stated bluntly.

The krawl were shocked. Neither of them spoke as this information sunk in.

"What were the affects of this project supposed to be?" Jeena asked.

"I-it was supposed to make humans more adaptable so that terraforming wasn't necessary," Blova replied. "One of the adaptations was supposedly the ability to obtain nutrition directly from dirt rather than having to grow our crops on this planet. I guess it backfired..."

"Should we bring these kra- sorry, these _people_ back to hq?" Rallen asked his partner.

"Yes," Jeena responded quickly, "but not yet, I want to look at the site where Neal found the tablet."

Rallen had no trouble removing his prizmod from the cavity of the control panel this time. All he had to do was twist two knobs that released the panel's locking mechanism. The two humans and the thirteen-or-so krawl all managed to squeeze into to elevator as it moved at its unusual slow speed up into the main room on the first floor. Rallen and Jeena were still feeling that something was wrong, but neither could figure out what.

After exiting the tower, the two humans and their krawl companions began to walk around the tower's massive base. Little more than a third of the way around the tower they saw it.

Saw what? I want you people to decide! This is an interactive fic, meaning that I'm taking reader ideas and turning them into chapters for this story. I bet you people already know that, though.

I owe this idea to one of my friends outside of deviantART who now goes by the deviantART name

zapdragon555

There's a link in the description.


	11. Homeworld Bound: Ooblajig Central

Tier 3 Chapter 3 Version 1

Just for reference: one dectraal is equal to two and a third yards. One Kollin year is about 1.00025 Earth years. If anyone requests it, I will post a unit conversion list on deviantART.

Rallen and Jeena followed Isaarf into the NPP hangar. They approached an enormous starship with a super advanced looking set of turrets set up along the side.

"Is that what we're riding in?" Rallen shouted excitedly. "It's the size of the ancient ship!"

"It rreally iss imresssivve issn't itt," Isaarf said in his slow voice, "butt thaat issn't whaat we'll bee ridinng in. We'll be traveling in sstyle." He led the two cadets to a small, slightly rusted ship that was similar to a teardrop is shape. Coming out from the sides of this sad little teardrop were two curved wings under which were missile launchers.

"We can't ride in that! It's not more than seven dectraals long; we'd never fit." Jeena said in disgust. "Besides, It looks like it's in terrible shape. We might be killed by a passing meteor!"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't talk about my family ship like that," Isaarf said in his sophisticated voice. "The Tiny terror fighter-class only exists anymore because Isaarf the first saved seven different sentient species, eight if you include the ripargan as separate from the fulil, from extinction. That does include both the human race and the Ooblajig empire. This particular ship has been in the family since Isaarf XVII. I won't have you disrespect a classic." With that, he lifted open the front window-dome and pulled the driver's seat foreward.

"There aren't any seats back here," Rallen said as he peered into the tight space, "and there's not much room either."

"Dvergar," Isaarf said to the ship in a gruff but understandable voice, "human seat command." A compartment in the back of the ship's interior opened and a bench seat slid out and filled the back section of the ship.

"There still isn't any room," Rallen pointed out.

"There's plenty of room if ya squeeze in thar," Isaarf retorted, still using the gruff voice. Then he thought for a while before switching back to his sophisticated voice. "... Forgive me, I was under the impression that you two were... close..." He looked to see their reactions. They both blushed a bright shade of red. _Somehow humans think it's weird when we change color, but when they do it, it's normal. _Isaarf thought to himself. "Ah, I now see that I should have kept my mouth closed. I apologise." He then turned to once again pull bach the driver's seat of the ship.

Rallen and Jeena awkwardly squeezed into the back of the tiny spacecraft.

"Dvergar," Isaarf addressed the ship with his gruff voice once again, "rendezvous with the Thor fleet, try to come into contact range with Hel this time, okay?"

"Understood, Sir," Dvergar replied in a smooth, but oddly artificial voice.

On the way out of Kollin's gravitational pull, Isaarf decided to speak up in his sophisticated voice. "In answer to your question earlier, Jeena, yes. Isaarf the first was the one who reversed Earth's global warming, and yes, this does mean that he was alive one hundred thirteen thousand years ago. The average Ooblajig lifespan is approximately seven hundred and forty Kollin years." The looks on their faces were priceless.

"H-how?" was all Jeena could say.

"I don't know," Isaarf replied, "I'm a pilot, not a medic."

After a long period of astonished silence, Rallen finally decided to ask the question that had been bugging him. "Isaarf, what exactly made you think that Jeena and I were... close?"

"It's no secret that the human male thinks about sex fourteen times at any given second," Isaarf explained. This got Rallen a scowl from Jeena and a blush on his own face. "As a pilot I was forced through some minor physiological literature classes and am able to, quote-unquote, 'read' your thoughts. Rallen's thoughts seem to be leaning heavily towards the image of Jeena wearing a-"

"Okay!" Rallen shouted, "I think you've made your point!" A few seconds later, Jeena punched Rallen in the shoulder roughly.

"Don't think of yerself as innocent," Isaarf said to Jeena in his gruff voice. "You still have a recent memory of yourself and Rallen in a medical bed together!" this caused Rallen to smile broadly as Jeena began to blush even brighter than he had.

"Approaching Thor Terror Fleet," Dvergar said. "ETA, ten seconds."

"Hail, Herospawn!" an excited voice shouted over some sort of video communication device. "I almost thought those humans had tricked us. It wouldn't be the first time, would it?"

"Danar, would you let go of the Arcturus incident!" Isaarf shouted loudly at the screen. "I already told you it wasn't my idea. How was I supposed to know Calvin had set up the whole thing?"

"Whatever, we're heading back to Sol soon, so get in line. Fragna-jua," He said as he soluted.

"Fragna-jua, you son of a bitch," Isaarf retorted in his gruff voice before turning off his end of the communication. "Dvergar, set a course for Sector D-2."

"What's in sector D-2?" Jeena asked.

"The hoome portaal," Isaarf said in his annoyingly slow voice. "Prepaare to returrn to Valhaallla, humaanss."

After what was possibly the longest and least comfortable trip through a portal ever, Rallen and Jeena found themselves in a completely new star system. Outside the front window, the two could see a pair of dwarf planets with no atmosphere. Some of the other ships in the fleet were moving down towards these.

"Home, sweet home," Isaarf said in a content tone of voice. "Kaluun darugi, Charon loniki jahud."

"You mean to tell us humans evolved on those lifeless rocks?" Jeena asked in astonishment.

"No!" Isaarf shouted, once again using his gruff voice. "I meant my home! Earth is far from here, I'm just here to re-supply. Welcome to Pluto and Charon."

Meanwhile, on Io...

"Trust my better judgment, master Krux," the tall blue creature said into one of his partner's many eyes. "This code is more than simply a way to understand how humans work. I have been testing a theory of mine on the aquatic life of this planet's moons and have managed to make gold from lead!"

"I believe I specifically told you to investigate the Ooblajig!" Krux shouted through his end of the krawl-mmunicator. "Why do you insist on following in Jado's footsteps?"

"Just look at your new minions, master!" this blue cretin is not listening!

"Are you paying atten-" Krux interrupted himself as he thought about what this high krawl had said. "What do I hear about new minions? Exactly what lead have you been using to make gold?"

"The biological codes in these animals can be easily modified to make them more closely related to humans. Due to their natural state's adaptations, this makes them susceptible to the mental control we hold over the underling krawl," the high krawl shouted excitedly. "This could be a way to hit the spectrobe masters where it hurts!"

"Though this information is useful, I still want you and Gunkii investigating the Ooblajig," Krux said with conviction. "I'll put Yariu and Hegion on this mission immediately. Now, I want you to repeat everything you just said so I know you were listening."

"You want my team to investigate the the Ooblajig while also working on this code thing," The tall blue krawl stated confidently.

"NO!" Krux yelled. "You, Ooblajig; Yariu, code! Do you understand!"

"I thought you could take a joke..." the annoying bug retorted. Krux sighed and closed the eye on his end to end the transmission.

Sorry, guys, Krux got WAY out of character there. At least I got this chapter out early. Thanks to all those loyal people who constantly read and contribute to my story.

Special thanks for this chapter go, once again, to 92darkdragon. .com/

I don't own any of the copyrighted stuff.

If any of you see the references made (with one exception) and leave a comment/review telling me that you get it, you will receive a metaphorical cookie. If you do leave a comment like this, please also leave an idea for the next chapter. If you don't get the references, still leave an idea.


	12. Homeworld Bound: Facts of Life

Tier 3 Chapter 3 Version 2

Rallen, Jeena, and Isaarf approached a large metal spacecraft in the NPP hangar. It was in the shape of a teardrop and had two curved wings coming out of the sides. It was slightly rusted and didn't look to Rallen like it was fit for space travel.

"Feast your eyes on the Starship Terror 11-A," Isaarf said in its sophisticated voice. "This battle cruiser has seen some nasty action in its time, but now we just use it for casual missions."

"That's nice and all," Rallen said, "but what're we riding in?"

"In this of course!" Isaarf replied, easily sensing Rallen's opinion of the ship through his thought patterns. "It may look ugly, but it's gotten me more places than you've even heard of."

"Are you coming, Isaarf, or am I gonna have to take off without you again?" A voice that strangely resembled Jeena's but was much more shrill called from the ship.

"Hold on a second, Quid!" Isaarf shouted in an oddly gruff voice. "It's hard to get humans to try new things, you know that!" Isaarf then turned to the two cadets and switched to his casual voice. "Sorry, that wass my copillot, Quid Larra. It doessn't like being kept waaiting."

Once onboard the ship, Rallen and Jeena were introduced to the crew. Isaarf was the captain of the ship. Quid Larra, who was also an Ooblajig but had a stange frill growing from the back of its head, was the copilot and weapons specialist. Ha'adak, a miniature version of Isaarf except with fewer violent details, was the ship's biologist. Lokiim, another frilled Ooblajig, was the main medic. Jindar, Luuki, and Zind'orlo were the other medics. They were small green creatures with three legs, four eyes, and odd tusks. They couldn't speak the same language as Rallen and Jeena. Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion, a short blue creature with four arms and large feet, was the head engineer. Rigidibus's underlings weren't important.

"You Ooblajig sure know how to build ships," Jeena commented as they returned to the cockpit. "Though the exterior suggests otherwise."

"Why make it pretty when it should be practical?" Isaarf responded in its gruff voice. The trio entered the room and Isaarf went over to the navigation console in front of his captain's chair. "Quid, how long should it take us to get home from here?"

"Depends, we going the fast way or the fun way?" It responded with a wry smile. Quid Larra was now speaking in a lower, more mischievous voice than the shrill one Rallen and Jeena had heard before.

"I'm gonna say... the fun way," Isaarf smiled back. It then addressed the two humans, "I suggest you two buckle up. We Ooblajig are known for our intelligent stupidity!"

Almost as soon as the ship left Kollin's orbit, it began moving faster than any ship should be able to.

"The Arcturus star system is approaching us, Sir," Quid Larra said calmly.

"Oh goodie," Isaarf smirked to itself and leaned foreward, "enemy territory. Let's see, what gifts should I leave them this time?"

"We could always use this time to test our experimental parasitic clusterbombs," Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion said over a video communicator. No sooner had it said this, than Isaarf began pressing buttons and turning dials on his console.

Rallen and Jeena, who were intently watching the windows, saw a quick blur as a bright star whizzed by at enormously high speeds. They then ran to a window near the back of the spacecraft and watched as the cluster bombs went off in the fleeting blur of the star system.

"I thought I told you two to buckle up!" Isaarf shouted in his gruff voice. "Not that it matters now. That was the only 'fun' part of the fun way back to Sol. Now you can just sit back as the stars fly by."

"How is it that your ship is able to move so quickly?" Jeena asked after about twenty minutes of sitting in silence.

"It's not us that's moving," Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion, who had come in shortly before Isaarf dropped the bombs, explained. "It's the space around us. Through a marvel of engineering, we Thugo found a way to move the universe without moving ourselves. It enabled all sentient beings to travel much faster than the speed of light. The trick is making larger ships, such as this one, able to do the same thing without the insulation killing the device that moves the space."

Jeena didn't know where to begin with her questions from there, so she just sat there and tried to imagine a way to do something similar.

Nearly an hour had passed since the ship had left Arcturus, but the navigational display still only said that they were 34% of the way between Nanairo and their destination.

"So, I'm guessing you two are related," Quid Larra suddenly said in a soft, conversational voice.

"No, It's obvious that they're mates!" Isaarf said in his gruff voice before either of the human's could respond. "They can't be related anyway. They're features are too different."

"Like you said before, Isaarf, you Ooblajig are stupidly intelligent," Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion cut in. "You jump to conclusions to quickly. They are simply partners in the business sense, nothing more."

"Oh?" Isaarf questioned in his sophisticated voice. "Then why did they share a bed in the medical wing of their headquarters?"

"W-wait, how do you know that?" Rallen and Jeena asked almost simultaneously.

"It seems as though you forgot to inform the humans of your intriguing abilities," Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion said slyly to the two Ooblajig. "I'll just explain. Ooblajig have the rude ability to accidentally tune into the thoughts of nearby beings. It's similar to when you're standing near two people who are talking and you only catch parts of the conversation. Obviously, Isaarf has seen some image in one of your minds of the two of you in the same bed in a medical room."

Isaarf then turned a bright shade of green with odd pink splotches. Quid Larra smirked smugly and watched the humans blush as well.

"You can be even worse than the male humans sometimes, Isaarf, did you know that?" Quid Larra said in her shrill voice. "It probably comes from that little bit of human DNA that still runs in the family." This caused the color in both Rallen and Jeena's faces to quickly drain. "Oh, no it's not like _that_. Y'see, several of our ancestors were ambassadors to early human colonies. To become an ambassador, they had to go through a series of genetic alterations that made them temporarily human. There's an old story that once you go human, you can never completely change back. It was just an innocent joke."

The awkward silence that ensued was... well... awkward. The navigational display showed that only a couple hundred light years remained between them and their destination.

"So what's with the voice thing?" Rallen asked to get everyone's minds turned towards something else.

"Get ready to get your ears talked off by six people in two bodies," Pulsarri Rigidibus Pius Antion said with a groan.

The tall blue creature wandering the icy wastelands of Io sighed loudly to its heavyset monolith of a partner. It was getting tired of having to go to every body in this star system and search for life.

"If your eyes were working right, we wouldn't have this problem!" The blue creature screamed at its companion. "Why is it I get stuck with all the useless krawl!"

The large, rocky creature let out a depressed moan of sadness at its partner's last comment. This only seemed to make the blue creature more infuriated.

"Don't give me that!" The blue creature screamed. "You need to learn that crying doesn't get you what you want."

"You're one to talk, Inzi," a feminine voice said from behind the creature. "I remember that just a few days ago you were crying over the fact that Krux wouldn't give you your human form."

"Yarui," Inzi said as it turned around to face the spiny high krawl. It raised its mechanical arm to point a thick finger in her direction. "Why are you here you selfish wannabe?"

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black!" Yarui shouted back at ther still genderless underling. "For your information, Krux sent us here to keep an eye on you." As she said the word "us," a muscular male form walked out from behind her. He was wearing a robe that hid many of his features.

"Who's your friend?" Inzi asked with a glare to the man. "I don't recall seeing him at base."

"Meet my partner, Hegion," Yarui said. "He's one of master Krux's new experiments. Why don't you show Inzi your face, Hegion?" Hegion removed his hood. Inzi was shocked by what he saw; a humanoid face, similar to the other high krawl, but with a metallic look. His eyes were glowing red and one appeared to be separated into three sections. "Y'see Hegion is master Krux's new mechanical krawl, and I get to test him out."

"Let's see how he protects you in battle!" Inzi shouted his threat.

"Let's!" Yarui responded.

"I'd advise agains-" Hegion said in a mechanical voice.

"Shut up, Hegion!" Yarui said as she began her transformation into her krawl form. Hegion followed suit. Once done with their transformations, the two high krawl took their battle positions.

"Gunkii," Inzi said to his companion, "remember to stay out of my way this time."

Inzi slammed his mechanical arm into the ground and prepared to send a supersonic pulse that slowly cracked the ice. This put Yarui, who's only support was a needle-like leg, slightly off balance. Hegion, however, had three legs which supported his weight beautifully as he aimed his gatling gun arm at Inzi's arm.

Just as Hegion was prepared to fire, the ice split completely through. The crack grew larger as four claw-like hands pushed it open.

"What is that thing?" Inzi asked in astonishment as he lifted his arm from the ground.

"Sensors indicate spectral abilities along with high electron activities," Hegion reported. "classification: spectrobe; genus: semi-legendary; species: unknown."

The immense creature climbed out of the moon's core and spread fin-like appendages on its back. This creature was not happy about being woken from its nap.

So what do you guys think? Too long? Too cliché?

I can't wait to see what you guys want to happen next! Please leave comments/reviews telling exactly what you guys think should happen next.

I owe this idea to my good-ish friend: zapdragon555

Once again, I need people to contribute so please do! I'm trying to type faster than one chapter per week, so get 'em out there!


	13. Homeworld Bound: Ziban Intervention

Tier 3 Chapter 3 Version 3

Rallen and Jeena followed Isaarf into the garden directly across the elevated road. Once there, Isaarf pulled a small device out from the padding on his shoulder and started to press buttons on it.

After a while, Rallen broke the silence, "So... where's your ship?"

"In that generalized direction," Isaarf replied, pointing upward. Rallen and Jeena looked up and didn't see anything. Perhaps it was a similar concept to the ancient starship, which had a teleportation system that led up to it's main interior.

"Ah, Isaarf, there you are," a light, feminine voice came through the device in Isaarf's hands. "Ten more minutes and I would've sent an assault team in after you. How many fingers are you missing?"

"You're never gonna let Arrakis go, are ya?" Isaarf replied in a gruff voice. "These humans are non hostile, surprisingly enough. I managed to meet up with a duo of krawl hunters who are willing to come check out our little problem."

"You know I can't let you up here unless you say the line," the feminine voice said after a moment of Isaarf expectantly waiting for... something.

"Donn't maake me ssay _thaat_ line," Isaarf said in his slow voice. "Unnliike youu, I haave no innteresst in humann 'nerrdinesss.'"

"Say it!" A rougher, but still feminine voice ordered.

Switching to his sophisticated voice, Isaarf said, "Beam us up, Scotty."

Rallen and Jeena, who hadn't understood most of what was being said between Isaarf and this other voice, suddenly found themselves surrounded by a bright blue light. When the light faded, the scenery had completely changed. Rallen and Jeena were standing in what looked to be a control room of some sort. There were creatures, unlike any that Rallen and Jeena had seen before, standing and sitting behind panels all around the room.

"Welcome aboard Terror-6," a short, blue creature with four arms said in a grumble. "Isaarf has duties he needs to be attending to, so I will be your tour guide around the ship."

Rallena and Jeena listened to the creature drone on about the engineer room where they presently were. In short, it was the safest part of the ship and was also the location of all the ship's vital organs.

The blue creature, who Rallen and Jeena now knew as Rionii, then led them into a thin hallway with a high ceiling. It was the crew's sleeping quarters. Its walls were lined with nearly four thousand sleeping compartments. All Rallen and Jeena saw was blank walls, so they couldn't quite grasp that number.

"I have a feeling he's gonna like this next room," Rionii said, pointing to Rallen with his lower left hand. "Welcome to the cafeteria. Our head chef just so happens to be a human, we picked hum up on New Folsom. Knowing your species, you'll probably end up in here a little more than three times a day just to be around your own kind." Before Rallen or Jeena could protest to this, Rionii was walking towards one of the other doors.

After several long explanations of the other rooms in the ship, Rionii finally led Rallen and Jeena to the eyes of the ship. Isaarf was busy leading a group of other creatures, most of which were the same species as it, in a series of ship diagnostics.

"Ah good, you're here," Isaarf said in his sophisticated voice. "I assume you're ready to go?"

"Ready when you-" Rallen was cut off by a beep followed by a communications screen popping up at the front to the room.

"Captain Isaarf," Commander Grant said respectfully, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've got a problem close to home. We'll need you to drop off Rallen and Jeena on planet Ziba."

"No can do, Grant," Isaarf replied in his gruff voice. "Despite what your species thinks, humans are not the most important race in the universe. We can't drop our mission just to help you with yours."

"I was afraid you'd say that," the Commander said with a scowl. "I suggest you consider the fact that Rallen and Jeena have the option not to help you."

"Damn human," Isaarf said as he abruptly ended the communication. "Looks like we're going to Ziba."

Faster than Rallen could blink, the great starship was in orbit around Ziba. It shocked Rallen and Jeena to suddenly find themselves some number of millions of miles from where they were only a second ago.

"Before you beam down," one of the other ooblajig said as he reached into the pocket on his shoulder, "I found this thing on New Folsom. It's human made, so you'll probably have better luck than us with it."

It then handed a pale blue prizmod to Rallen. Before Rallen or Jeena could say anything, they were on the surface of Ziba along with Isaarf and Rionii. Jeena turned to ask Isaarf why he had come along, but stopped herself when she saw a sense of awareness in Isaarf's eyes. Isaarf's nostrils twitched slightly.

"I smell fremen," Isaarf explained. "There are children of the spice on this planet."

"What's he talking about?" Rallen asked in complete confusion.

"The Ooblajig race never had good relations with the human evolution branch known as fremen," Rionii explained calmly. "Apparently, this planet is home to the descendants of fremen."

Isaarf then began to march purposefully in the direction of one of the paths nearby. Rallen, Jeena, and Rionii followed it to the location of the research facility. Professor Kate was waiting near one of the consoles inside the structure.

Without turning around she said, "Ah, Rallen, Jeena, I'm glad you could get here so soon. There's-" She was cut off by the sound of Isaarf pulling out a small weapon and disarming the safety cap. Professor Kate quickly spun on her heels to see a large purple monster aiming a pen at her face. At that precise moment, Rallen came into the room.

"Rallen, care to explain why this creature is aiming a pen at my face and you're just standing next to him?" the professor asked.

"Professor Kate, meet Isaarf the twenty-fourth," Jeena said as she walked in and saw what was going on. "He's a captain in our new allied empire. He thinks you're a descendant of a hostile race of humans that cut off several of his fingers. Considering the fact that his fingers grew back, I'm not sure why he's still holding a grudge. I also don't know why he's threatening you with a pen."

"This is a pencilizer," Isaarf explained. "In our original language, the term 'pencil' meant 'dead mind.' It has a ten percent chance of killing an organism with only one brain. I'm willing to risk killing a freman."

"I don't know who the fremen are, but I can assure you that I'm just as diplomatic as Rallen and Jeena. Please, lower the weapon," Kate said softly.

Isaarf capped the safety over the trigger. This action greatly resembles clicking the back of a pen. He then cautiously returned the pencilizer to its holster on his belt.

"So, Professor Kate, what seems to be the problem?" Rallen asked.

"A strange fossil was found in Aoboshi earlier this week, but it disappeared last night. Then, we got a distress call from Akaboshi saying that a leader krawl had appeared at the corresponding location to where the spectrobe was found on Aoboshi," Kate described quickly.

"We picked up a strange pulse of self-sustainable matter and self-sustainable antimatter in this area only a few minutes ago," Rionii explained. "Perhaps there's a connection between the three of these occurrences."

"What's self-sustainable matter and antimatter?" Jeena asked curiously.

"Thugo terminology for living light and living dark, like the spectrobes and krawl," Rionii answered.

"Where did this pulse come from?" Professor Kate asked, steering them back onto the topic at hand.

Rionii gestured for the others to follow him out the door. He used small, feathered wings that Rallen and Jeena had not noticed before to fly to the top of a steep hill. He then pointed in the direction of a well-known excavation site. Isaarf flew up after Rionii and left the humans to crawl up the side of the cliff. When they got to the top of the cliff, they saw something that they didn't expect at all. A huge, black crater had formed in the middle of the quarry.

"How is it that nobody noticed this?" Rallen asked in shock.

"It only ocuured a few minutes ago," Isaarf said. "Probably while Rionii was giving you the grand tour."

After a few more minutes of examination, the onlookers noticed that there were two beings in the center of the crater. One was bright white with blue lines of color covering its scaly body. It had fin-like appendages coming off from its back and a pair of bulky arms. It's head was obscured by some sort of black goo that was attached to the other creature. This second creature had a bulky, purple body with crimson markings. Similar to a blova, it had bulky arms and a tiny body, but this creature also had domes of green liquid mounted around its shouders.

"I guess we found the spectrobe and the krawl," Jeena said.

The goo spread down from the spectrobe's head down to its lower arms. The spectrobe responded to this by splitting its cone-like lower body into six mechanical legs. It then used these new limbs to claw away at the krawl's chest.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Rallen asked in terror.

"I think it can handle itself," Isaarf replied in his gruff tone.

As if on cue, the krawl then completely consumed the spectrobe and shaped its amoebic body around the spectrobe. This new creature then leaped into the air and was gone from sight.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Rallen said ominously.

ThoronWild gave me this idea

I really enjoyed writing this one because of all the references I made. I hope no one flames about them...

Keep reading and contributing... please!

I don't own Spectrobes, Dune, Starcraft, or any of their characters or planets. I do, however, own all of the strange aliens onboard the Terror Assault ship series.


	14. Triloth Chronicles: Ambush

Chapter 4 Version 1 Tier 1 Branch 1

"Alone? Why would she have to do this alone?" Rallen asked in shock.

"Many centuries ago," Golth began, "a great prophetess foresaw the coming of a great swarm of parasites. We were told that these parasites would not cause any direct harm to us Triloths, but the disease they left behind would corrupt mammalian life throughout the system.

"This same prophetess told us to seek her when her words came to be. She would not know she was who she was, for reincarnation does not carry over memories."

"You're not answering our question," Jeena pointed out.

"We fear that the male-ling will be corrupted by the parasites' infection," Fadar explained. "Our superiors believe that the pink haired one's previous life as a Triloth will keep her safe from the virus."

"I don't care," Rallen forcefully stated. "I'm not letting you take Jeena into a dangerous situation we know nothing about, especially is she's alone."

After some more arguing amongst the group, the Triloths reluctantly allowed Rallen to tag along.

Later, in the Arcturus Star system

"I told you. We should have used a portal; you know Warp Gate travel always makes mammals sick," Fadar scolded Golth as Rallen stumbled around in confusion.

"I'm sorry for choosing the fast route when we're, you know, trying to save the entire triloth race!" Golth hissed in reply.

As Rallen and Jeena began to regain their senses, Golth and Fadar landed their ship on the natural Satellite of a nearby gas giant. The moon was very similar to Genshi in that it was covered in lush forests and wetlands. The only significant differences were the large, gelatinous structures that greatly resembled the ship Rallen and Jeena were presently in.

"Welcome to what's left of Kadarra," Golth said unhappily as the ship's door opened. "As soon as we exit this ship, we will no longer be able to understand each other, so let me take any and all questions now."

"What do you expect me to do when I encounter a corrupt human or a parasite?" Jeena asked.

"How would we know that?" Golth asked in frustration. "You're the prophetess, you should know how when you find them." The two humans really didn't like where this was going.

"Where do we start? Do you think we're going to search the entire moon for an answer?" Rallen asked.

"No," Fadar calmly explained before Golth could make a rude comment. "We landed near a Triloth village that was recently under siege by the corrupted. The corrupted humans shouldn't be too hard to find, and from there you should be able to do the rest."

"What exactly does that mean?" Jeena asked. "Am I supposed to fight these people? Weapons were never my strong point."

"If we knew what to do, would we have gone all that way to get you?" Golth snarled in frustration. "C'mon, we're wasting time with this discussion."

The strange group of four sentient beings began wandering around the abandoned village, looking for something they could use to find a solution to their problem. Unfortunately each member of the party had a different idea of the type of solution they would find.

Jeena was hoping for a cure, or at least a vaccine. She wanted to make absolutely sure this infection wouldn't affect any more humans. The very thought of intelligent beings becoming war mongering monsters because of a simple disease chilled her to the core.

Rallen, Komainu keeping pace beside him, was looking around for some sort of fossil or ancient dinalium weapon. He was only interested in making sure that the present threat was averted, not caring if or when it would come back. He wanted this to be as simple as his first war against the krawl.

Fadar wished for a sign from the Triloth deities. He was a firm believer in his prophetess, and he never questioned whether Jeena was this entity or not. His eyes were open for murals or carvings in stone.

Last we enter the mind of Golth. His philosophy was as simple as his mind. Big weapons are equal to faster victory in Golth's mind. He never stopped to consider a passive solution, nor did he hold any belief in the prophetess who had captured his brother's mind. Worst of all his thoughts was his specism. He _hated_ humans.

With all their differing opinions on what it was they were looking for, it comes as no surprise that they managed to mindlessly wander into an ambush.

"I honestly have no idea," Jeena replied after Rallen asked why _she_ was the all-powerful prophet. "I just want to get this over with before someone starts to-"

It was then that a hideous noise echoed down the alley the group had meandered into. Three of the four managed to turn around quickly enough to avoid the swiftly approaching threat, but Fadar was not so fortunate. The humanoid beast leapt onto the Triloth's scaly back and began to scratch vigorously at the back of Fadar's neck. Golth immediately lunged in to bite the creature's left arm, but to no avail, as another of the infected humans had latched onto his tail.

"Iku ze!" Rallen shouted as he called forth Spikanor and Komanoto. He then called to Jeena and tossed her the lab system's memory storage device, which he had been keeping in his prizmod. She caught the large cartridge and plugged it into the back of her scanner.

Zozane and Dongora leapt into battle alongside their pink haired master. Jeena could never quite control evolved spectrobes without the cosmolink.

"There are more coming!" Rallen shouted as he saw shadows emerging from a cloud of smoke that had begun drifting down the alley. The figures began a mad dash towards Rallen who managed to knock back the first couple with his mace. Spikanor managed to halve another while two more began to climb onto Komanoto.

"Can you hold 'em off while I help out these guys?" Jeena asked over her shoulder as Zozane drilled into the creature attacking Fadar.

"No sweat," Rallen called back sarcastically. Suddenly a whip like appendage reached out of the smoke cloud and wrapped around Rallen's arm and pulled him into the shroud. He saw the face of the infected human that had just grabbed him... with its tongue... the entire left side of the man's face was gone, all that was left was a bloody scab.

Rallen interrupted his horror at the creature's face when he realized that it was trying to tear through his armor. He quickly switched his weapon to his old cosmosword and rammed it through the infected man's chest. This caused it to hesitate for a brief moment before continuing to rip away at Rallen's uniform.

_This isn't a human,_ Rallen thought. _It's a monster!_ He then jammed his sword through the open side of the thing's skull. The creature dropped to a bloody heap on the ground, tongue and all. _I forgot that these things aren't krawl,_ Rallen thought, trying not to vomit as he backed towards his spectrobes. _These things bleed, and the bodies don't disappear when they die._

Jeena was also facing problems with extreme infected humans. A huge, muscle-bound beast had just slammed her into the wall of the nearby building after knocking Zozane unconscious in a single strike. Luckily, Jeena had access to the entire Spectrobes database. She returned Zozane to stasis and called forth Shakor, who immediately made a beeline straight through the juggernaut. The great beast's left arm had been torn from its socket and lay on the ground, and its eight-chamber heart had a rip nearly six inches across on it, yet it managed to smash Jeena against the wall once more before it collapsed.

After the bright flash of a lightning storm that whipped out the remaining infected humans had left his eyes, Rallen rushed over to Jeena. "Jeena! Are you alright?" He worriedly shouted. All he got in response was a groan. "Don't worry, I'll get you outa here. He then looked over to the two Triloths who had gotten up and were acting as they hadn't just been mauled by psychotic mutants.

They began to head back towards the ship. Rallen was eager to ask them what they were really dealing with because the previous explanation didn't involve superhuman abilities.

If anyone guesses what crossover I just made, I will give him or her a metaphorical cookie. Keep in mind that metaphorical cookies cannot be eaten, shared, cut, shredded, vaporized, destroyed, given away a second time, stolen, or tortured to death. You will be stuck with it until the absolute data that makes up this universe decides otherwise. You can blame Haruhi Suzumiya for that part about absolute data.

I hope you liked this chapter, I know it got a little graphic, but it's not much worse than a T-rated video game. Please Rate and Review if you have any sort of opinion. If you have something negative to say, say it in a way that only uses curse words in the way they were meant to be used or not at all.

I hope you liked this chapter better than the last one. Remember that this is an interactive fanfic, but from now on, I'm only accepting one idea per chapter. If I kept accepting two or three, I'd end up with several terabytes of data on my iMac.


	15. SpectroCraft: Addon Complete

Chapter 4 Version 1 Tier 1 Branch 2

SpectroCraft: Add-on Complete

"This is awkward," Rallen said with a bright blush as he attempted to avert his gaze from Jeena's open collar.

"Well, you're gonna have to live with it for two more minutes," Nova retorted as she finished entering the coordinates for the drop pod. "Hold on to anything except the walls 'cus this'll be a bumpy ride."

Unknown to the three canned humans inside the drop pod, a Zerg Drone found its way into the drop pod's ventilation system. It's payload was a whopping three hundred minerals...

The trip down to Kollin's landing stations was less than comfortable. It all started going downhill when the pod was launched downward with the force equal to that of a dinalium beam. For StarCraft fans, that's about twenty times more force than a Yomato Cannon. Things began to spiral further out of control when Nova's rifle swung around and hit Rallen in the back of his head, sending him face-first into Jeena.

When the pod cracked open upon impact with the top of NPP's tower, the humans were too busy apologizing to one another to notice the rich Drone sneak over the edge of the port.

Commander Grant's office suddenly seemed a million times bigger to Rallen and Jeena, who were retaining a distance of six meters between them. At his usual position behind his desk, Commander Grant stood to greet Nova and the two officers.

"Lieutenant Nova, I expect these two didn't cause you too much trouble," He was in his usual all-business mood. "What is the present status of the krawl invasion of Genshi?"

"The krawl?" Nova asked in confusion. "I think you're referring to the Zerg, Commander. Their infestation has spread over three peaks of mineral-rich mountains and into nearby wetlands. Fortunately they seem to lack Infestation Pits and Spires. We may be able to defeat the virus, but I've been informed by Jeena that I would need your consent."

"Permission granted, just make sure you keep the casualties to a minimum," Commander Grant quickly replied. "I'll need to brief Rallen and Jeena on their next mission, so stay close to HQ. They'll need some transportation, and I'm running out of ships for them to wreck."

Nova left the building to begin exploring this advanced culture of humans. This left Rallen and Jeena to discuss their next series of tasks with their boss.

"Ever since you two found that prizmod, this solar system has seen nothing but trouble," The Commander said with a sigh. "You two need to assist, in any way possible, the efforts of these fellow humans. I suggest you start by learning more about these 'Zerg.' Then you'll need to help their engineers find alternatives to Terran methods of machinery. I think even Rallen knows more about ship maintenance than they do."

Jeena lightly giggled at this last comment. It was true that her partner knew next to nothing about the way their patrol cruiser worked, but at least he could keep the hull from falling apart.

After the briefing was finished, Rallen and Jeena began to look around for Nova. They found her in the marketplace trying to strike a deal at the nearby restaurant.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but that type of money doesn't buy anything here. You'll have to pay in gura," the cashier tried to explain.

"Bullshit! I work my ass off for my money, and I can't even spend it outside of the Dominion?" She began to reach for the weapon slung over her shoulder.

"Whoa! Nova, calm down. What's going on?" Jeena said as she intervened.

"It's not easy living on military rations. I make it a habit to try something new every time I find time to go out for lunch, but, apparently, I can't spend Dominion credits here. Not that I would be making a good choice. They charge 250 for a plate of macaroni, 320 for a sandwitch, 400 for a-" Nova was cut off by Rallen's laughter.

"You think that's expensive? These are fast food prices."

"Hey!" the cashier shouted dejectedly.

Ignoring him, Rallen continued. "If you wanna see a _real_ scandal, ask Cyrus how much a rice ball costs. If he says anything less than five hundred gura, I'll bet twice as much that it's poisoned."

"How many gura is in a credit?" Nova asked. "This conversion isn't going to be easy if I don't know the basic proportions.

"Depends, how much do you pay for fast food?" Jeena replied before Rallen could make a smart remark.

"Let me see... $4.99 for a burger, conversion rate of $1:1.33 credits..." Nova calculated out loud. "About six and a half credits for a burger."

At this statement Rallen and Jeena's jaws dropped. "There is literally _nothing_ you can buy with seven gura." Jeena finally said. "Why don't we just pay for your food? It'll make things much simpler for us."

During this long argument over something as ridiculous as the price of fast food, the drone that had hitched a ride to Kollin had made its way down to the base of the towers that covered the planet's surface. The Hatchery had just finished morphing, and larva were beginning to hatch.

Yes, this is a short chapter. Sorry. I just wanted to end it at least partially suspensefully.

Once again I owe this idea to 92darkdragon

I don't own Spectrobes or StarCraft.


	16. SpectroCraft: Hostile Takeover

Tier 1 Branch 2 Chapter 4 Version 2

SpectroCraft: Hostile Takeover

When Nova and the two natives left for the third planet, Kollin or something, James Raynor decided to strike up a conversation with his old friend Matt Horner.

"Hey Matt, you ever stop to think about the size of this place?" Jim asked in a sort of dazed voice.

"It's a big ship, Sir, but you can walk from one end to the-" Matt was cut off by Jim's laughter.

"That's not what I meant," He began to explain. "This galaxy is huge. Whenever we think we've seen it all, we find something new and completely unheard of. This Solar System was marked as uninhabitable, yet here we find five planets that support human life... Right when the erg arrive, no less."

"It's an odd coincidence, sure, but why do you care? Just so long as we get the Zerg outa here, it doesn't matter why they came," Matt replied.

He was right. The important thing was keeping this system from ending up like Haven. The infestation could not be allowed to spread to a populated area. Jim stood up and decided to go pick a fight with Swan.

On his way down the Hyperion hallways, Jim noticed a large, muscle-bound man thundering down the hall with a cigar in the corner of his mouth. He looked oddly familiar... but he couldn't be. He was dead.

The large marine continued to storm down the hall towards the ship's cockpit. Tychus Findley broke the door down with a single, heavy-footed kick.

"T-Tychus?" Matt stuttered. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. Probably because Jim had killed Tychus months ago and left his body on a planet that would burn it in a few days. "How the hell are you still alive, and why are you on this ship?"

"Damn, Matt, if you're gonna get so riled up just 'cuz I look like a dead convict, maybe I shoulda chose a different form to take," after this strange statement, Tychus began to melt. There was no other way to describe it, he was just... liquefying. This new liquid Tychus shaped into a bipedal mass and solidified again. He now had a thin beard and grey hair, square shoulders, and an imperial cloak.

"It's a changeling! Quick, somebody shoot it!" a crewmember shouted as he drew his own weapon. The Form of Arcturus Mengsk was quickly turned into Swiss cheese by a volley of bullets from the humans around him.

"You humans will never learn," The strange creature said as morphed again into a large, amoebic creature with two wildly waving arms and faces growing down its back. "I am no changeling of the zerg's. I am a Swamorph. The most advanced of the krawl genus. Now, step away from the controls, Matthew."

"Not happening, slimeball!" Jim shouted as he fired a marauder cannon from down the hall. The missile lodged itself in the Swamorph's back shortly before exploding. Pieces of the krawl went in every direction. "Got 'em!"

"Think again human," The voice seemed to come from every individual part of the now broken Swamorph. "You just made this several times easier for me. I hope you like being taken over by force!"

The assorted pieces of krawl goo then seeped into the cracks in the interior of the ship. This was not going to end well.

Nova and the two natives returned a few hours later to find the entire crew of the Hyperion crammed into the Armory. They were presently working on making sure the walls had absolutely no cracks in them. Swan was bolting down loose suspension rigs that should've been checked on a long time ago. Jim and Matt were helping set up turrets near weak spots. Kerrigan, who had recently recovered from the artifact's shockwave, was helping other ghost operatives set up a radar system to detect cloaked units.

"Are we expecting an attack on the armory?" Nova asked nobody in particular as two tanks switched into siege mode.

"No, we're expecting an attack on us from inside the walls, and the armory is the safest place to be during an attack like that. At least, that's what our fearless leader thinks," Swan said in agitation. "I don't like the idea of having every Terran on board this ship inside my armory."

"Who's attacking us? How'd they get inside the ship?" Nova asked, shocked.

"It calls itself a krawl," Jim said as he walked up to the group. "More specifically it called itself a Swamorhp. It has the same basic abilities as a changeling, but it took several shots from pistols and a shot from a marauder cannon and was able to get right back up. Worst of all, it's body regeneration is exponentially greater than that of the average Zerg."

"That's because it's not a Zerg," Jeena joined the conversation with a correction. "If it said it was a krawl, that probably means it was a krawl, but it's not one I've ever heard of. That would explain its immunity to your weapons."

"So you know what these 'krawl' are?" Jim asked. "I thought it was just some rogue Zerg faction."

"The krawl devour planets. They live to fight. Anything they kill, they eat," Rallen bluntly stated. "The simple fact that this krawl told you what it was is a bad sign. Most krawl don't have brains and aren't able to talk because of that. We may be dealing with a high krawl."

A loud metallic bang was heard from the front wall. A large dent had formed in the part of the hull just behind the console. A Goliath was sent to the site. Another sound came from the door and two more from the opposite wall. The Armory was for research, not weapon storage. There just weren't enough guns to aim at ever bump in the wall. Then the wall gave way. Two bright blue lasers fired through the hole and struck the waiting siege tanks. The form of a Blovaser stepped through the wall.

"I suggest you run," The cybernetic krawl snorted as it sprouted four immortal arms.

In the panic of every man, woman, and machine sprinting for the door while also trying to fight off the ultimate immortal, nobody noticed seven new recruits enter the mob.

"Ready to raise some hell!" a hellion driver said as he drove from the other side of the armory. The tiny ATV fired its high propulsion flame turret at the creatures shoulder cannon, burning it to a smoldering crisp. "Put that in your tailpipe and smoke it!"

The newly fried outer shell on the krawl's shoulder began to crack. Once the charred flesh had completely worn away, the gun started to regrow.

"Uh... I'm in a heap of trouble!" The driver shouted as he tried his best to refry the cannon. One immortal blaster turned from terrorizing the crew to face the tiny car. In three shots, the vehicle and its driver had been blasted out of existence.

"Get the firebats in here!" a marine shouted over the chaos of the fleeing crew.

"Ready to Roast," The devil Dog in command of the firebat division said. The firebats didn't have an easy time of getting to the Swamorph. They had to dodge lasers of different magnitudes while stumbling around debris in bulky metal suits. Once they got to the creature, however, the tables turned. The skin of the creature was quickly turned to ashes by the eight surviving bats, and when the charred flesh fell away, they didn't leave any time for the creature to regenerate.

Nearly a quarter of an hour later, the firebat squad clanged through the ship to the cantina. The entire crew had rushed there as fast as possible.

"I'm telling you gotta let me go back there, I can fight them!" was the first thing the firebats heard when they entered the bar. A redheaded kid was arguing with Lieutenant Kerrigan.

"I don't care if you _can_ fight them, we've got it covered. Besides, I'm not gonna let a kid onto a battlefield where there are crazy arsonists and Ubermortals," the lieutenant, whose hair was died red, replied.

"I take offense to that," the devil dog breathed.

Ignoring the implied arsonist, Rallen continued his argument, "that wasn't an ubermortal, or whatever. That was a krawl. By burning it you probably just made it mad."

"Just to let y'all know, the armory has been cleared of Zerg and or krawl, so feel free to check the armory console... or whatever the hell it is y'all do in that room," one of the rookie bats said loudly enough to get his superiors' attention.

Later that night, seven crewmembers met in the privacy of a siege tank's cockpit. They were all there to discuss the events that had unfolded earlier that day.

"It's obvious that this ship is not going to be easy to take by force," said the short, blonde man in the red coat. "And if we're missing the link that holds us together as a being, then it will make things increasingly difficult."

"On the contrary," a tall man with dark hair and a creepy smile argued. "I think being separate entities will make this objective much easier to reach."

"I agree. When we were all controlled by a single mind, our transformations were controlled, but now we have freedom to morph as we wish. I can be what suits my persona while you all do something different," the skinny redhead in the back said loudly.

"I think I like you just fine as a human," a dark skinned man with beady eyes said as he examined her form from a distance.

"Jokes aside, what are we gonna call ourselves?" a pale woman with slanted eyes asked the group. "We can't very well go around calling ourselves 'Swamorph 1' and 'Swamorph 2.'"

"Sure we can, we'd just be very conspicuous," another woman, with bright green hair, said.

"Shut up, all of you!" the dog in the driver's seat snarled. "If you guys want names, I'll give you names! You're stupid, you're crazy, you're delusional, he's jackass, she's kamikaze, you're bigmouth, and I'm awesome. Happy?"

After the nervous silence of waiting to see if any of the other crew members heard this loud ranting, the group started thinking of better names for themselves.

The sort blond guy said, "I'll be Edward."

"Itzuki," the creepy smile guy stated while raising his hand.

"I guess Candice sounds like a good name for this body..." The skinny redhead suggested.

"Let's see, something stupid. Something that will draw attention away from me while still making me noticeable..." The dark skinned guy thought out loud. "I've got it. You can call me Brock."

"Cho," The pale woman said immediately after Brock had finished.

"I feel like doing something stupid, something that will draw attention away from you guys... I'll be Miku," the green haired girl explained.

"I'm Brian," The dog stated dully.

"Brian?" Edward asked in astonishment. "You could pick any name in the world, and you chose 'Brian'?"

"This coming from a guy who named himself 'Edward'?" Brian countered.

"Touché," Edward shrugged.

The seven crewmembers then returned to the sleeping quarters. The next day would hopefully be a big day for them. They were better off without the mind that controlled them.

On the floor of the armory, all the ashes of the recently defeated Swamorph began cluster in a corner.

LOL I hope you guys got all the references in that last scene. It's no fun if nobody gets it.

Once again I thank 92drakdragon for this idea.

I own none of the referenced material or either of the obvious materials. I'd prefer it if you didn't sue me.


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